Hyderabad Metro Rail deal signed

The Andhra Pradesh state government and Maytas Metro Rail Limited signed a concession agreement on Friday for the metro rail project. Principal secretary (municipal administration), C.V.S.K. Sarma, and the Maytas Metro managing director, B. Teja Raju, signed the agreement in the presence of the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

The project, which is worth 12,132 crore, is to be completed by a Matyas-led consortium by 2012. The Hyderabad Metro Rail managing director, N.V.S. Reddy, said work would begin in the next three months and by then the government would have taken steps to reduce traffic during the construction of the project.

The state is giving 269 acres of land to the BOT developer on lease and the company will make revenue through real estate development. Though the Centre has sanctioned Rs 2,363 crore under Viability Gap Funding, the consortium is not taking any grant from the exchequer. Instead, it has assured to pay Rs 30,311 crore to the government over 35 years.